


Aftershocks

by anavoli



Category: RWBY
Genre: Gen, spoilers for volume 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-24
Updated: 2016-02-24
Packaged: 2018-05-22 22:27:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6095968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anavoli/pseuds/anavoli
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The different paths that Team RWBY take in the months following the attack on Beacon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Aftershocks

The raven is there again. Beady little eyes staring back at her through the window. Taunting her.

Blake is gone. Yang Xiao Long is left without her right hand and her left. What kind of dragon can she be now, one with clipped wings and a broken heart?

Because while Ruby has enough heart left to try and save the entire world, Yang has lost far too much. Her friends, gone. Mother, a mystery. She cannot go any further, fight with fire only to be stamped out in the end.

The seasons go on. Taiyang is the ever loving father, bringing soup and tea when Yang forgets to eat. Qrow visits every so often, staying for a few days before departing on yet another mission. There is no news from Beacon, only muttered tones of discussion from her father and uncle. Sometimes Yang listens in when they think she’s sleeping. Taiyang would never tell her about the Grimm infestation or increasing Huntsmen disappearances. He tries to keep conversation light, because he thinks that’s what she needs to heal.

Yang doesn’t know what she needs.

Her days are spent in solitude, and she can feel her muscles turning to mush. There’s no Ruby here to cheer her up. When she left, Taiyang freaked out, but now Qrow’s been watching over his niece, somehow. She’s with Team JN_R, hunting down Cinder Fall, the White Fang, and whoever the hell is also involved when no one else dares to try.

Have they had contact with Blake? Weiss? Her uncle tells her not to blame herself, but illusion semblance or no, Yang had a part in bringing down Beacon. Once again, people are dead, hurt or missing, partly because of her.

Pawns. Cinder made them all  _ pawns _ . Once upon a time, Yang would have been infuriated, and she still is. But she can’t do anything about it now. Not without her arm, not without her team. Once again, her mother is nowhere, not even when her own daughter, needs her more than anything.

And every day, that stupid bird watches from outside the window.

-x-X-x-

There’s never really anything that can be done about blood. You can scrub as hard as you want, but it has a tendency to linger, and nothing can ever be as white as it used to be. 

Blake Belladonna will never forget. She will never forget how she  _ failed _ as Adam took away everything she worked so hard for. Yang. Beacon. Happiness. 

So she runs. As soon as she knew that Yang would be okay, Blake ran right back to Beacon. Keeping an eye on what was happening, watching that giant Grimm circle the tower and grey coat the school she once called home. 

As usual, she avoids the Grimm, hides in the shadows from any sign of danger. It’s easier when she’s alone, when there’s no one else to worry about. After all, there’s a reason why cats are called solitary creatures.

It’s better this way. 

Food is difficult to find, and as Blake chews up another meal of roots and bugs, she tries not to think of the last good meal she had. A bowl of fish, with all her friends, a meal that Pyrrha paid for. It’s only been a couple weeks since the tournaments, but it feels like it was ages ago. It’s hard to remember a time when things were good, when everything around you smokes and reeks of darkness. 

So she plans her next move. Find more intel on the White Fang, use her semblance to get intel no one else can. Maybe she’ll even get close enough to stab Adam in the back. It wouldn’t be the first time. 

Blake is done with running. Or so she tells herself. She waits, bides her time, though she knows that the problem of saving the world is bigger than anything she could ever hope to solve by herself.

But she’s going to damn well try.

-x-X-x-

Weiss Schnee spends every morning practicing her summoning. Now that she knows she can do it, she’s determined to practice it until it becomes second nature. Not like there’s anything else to do at this point. Even Winter looks at her with concern, as the weapons she summons grow larger, and the practice sessions continue into the night. 

Everything is wrong. Weiss should be with Ruby, Neptune, or any of her other friends, wherever they are. She should be doing her damn job as a huntress, not at home making weapons out of ice. 

Her father won’t even let her contact anyone. So she’s stuck here, in her perfect, pristine white world while the rest of the world is torn apart. 

So while she’s here...she might as well make the most of it. 

She asks her sister for advice, listening carefully to Winter’s words in order to correct her form. It must be perfect, she must be unstoppable, if she is going to save her friends this time around. 

Weiss Schnee is anything but helpless. She chose Beacon, and she is going to go back. 

Her unhappiness is no secret from her family. Winter shows concern when she is able, looking at the bandages that circle Weiss’s fingers and shaking her head. While politicians rage on about the events at Beacon, General Ironwood plans his next move and her baby sister is trying to save the world. 

It is dark outside when Weiss leaves, moon barely visible. She steps outside with a cloak over her head and Myrtlenaster safely at her side.

And she doesn’t look back. 

-x-X-x-

It takes but a moment to decide what her decision will be. The world has been turned topsy turvy. Pyrrha is gone. Yang may never be the same again. And her friends are scattered to the winds. 

_ What are you going to do about it? _

So when Team JNPR asks if Ruby Rose wants to go save the world, of course she says yes. 

Taiyang will be worried, of course, but she’s always been her mother’s daughter. So, with one final visit to Summer Rose’s grave, Ruby sets off into the unknown. 

It’s winter now. It’s been months since Ruby’s seen her team. Weiss is stuck in Atlas with a family who is blind to the truth, Blake hasn’t been heard from in months, and Yang just needs time. In the months before her departure, Ruby spent time training. Modifying Crescent Rose. Laughing at her dad’s jokes. Trying to give Yang the space she needs. And pretending that she’s not going to leave.

But she refuses to let the darkness take over.  Everything is weird, from the strange power she seems to possess now, a power she knows nothing about. Jaune tries to help her figure it out, but she knows that he’s just as lost as she is. His only experience with powers similar to hers is Cinder, in those terrifying hours before they lost Pyrrha forever. 

There is hope though. No enemy is invincible, Ruby is sure. 

She won’t lose anyone else. She swears it. Crescent Rose has enough power to take down anything that tries to hurt her friends. She wants nothing but to go home, to see Yang smile and hear Qrow’s teasing words, but that isn’t going to happen any time soon. She either saves the world, or she dies trying.

This is her fate, this is her  _ job _ . She set off to Beacon to learn how to be a huntress, to learn how to protect the people who have already given up on the world. 

But she will fight for them. To the end. 

**Author's Note:**

> I finally got something written after that finale. There are just so many things I wanted to say about Team RWBY, because each character is so unique and my heart broke for them. This is not very thoroughly edited but it'll never be done if I don't post it now.


End file.
